Reimagining Christendom by Joel D. Anderson

Author:Joel D. Anderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.

The text of NRA dipl. AM fasc. 57 no. 7 delivers a straightforward message, along with several threats. In mostly unadorned Norse, the letter explains that Huguccio has traveled to the bishopric with apostolic backing in order to collect the tithes and contributions already gathered and those not yet gathered for the subsidy of the Holy Land. Clerics who have been negligent in these duties are warned about the looming threat of excommunication. The document further advises that those who ignore the present notice “will be punished without any hope of mercy, both with fines and other penalties so that their punishment will be an example to others.”86 The letter ends abruptly with a plea from Bishop Andrés: “Do as he says.”87

Measuring about the size of a standard playing card when folded for transportation, NRA dipl. AM fasc. 57 no. 7 hints at how directives surrounding the crusade taxes might have been delivered to local clerics with little knowledge of Latin. Dispensing with the elaborate material and rhetorical features favored by the higher clergy, the document publicizes a simple demand: pay up, or else. The efficacy of short written mandates like NRA dipl. AM fasc. 57 no. 7 depended on their wide circulation. The irregular features highlighted above—the absence of an eschatocol and the unreadable final lines—suggest, perhaps, that this document functioned more as a prop than as a legal instrument deserving of careful scrutiny. It was an object that the messenger could point to and display as evidence of the authority that undergirded his mission. Scripts for performance, these texts were likely read aloud by Norse-speaking deputies in the bishopric’s major churches. The messengers who carried them would have traveled several days over rugged terrain. It surely took them weeks to assemble a quorum of parish clergy, deliver the appropriate notices, and then gather the taxes. Such interactions were certainly filled with delicate negotiations, detailed explanations, and, if necessary, explicit threats.

Figure 3. NRA AM dipl. fasc. 57 no. 7 (detail). Slit for the pendant seal tag. Oslo, Riksarkivet.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.